Kelly Rizzo reflected on her first year without her late husband Bob Saget and how “surreal” it has been.
The 43-year-old blogger spoke candidly about her grief throughout 2022 during Thursday’s episode of Today. Saget was found dead in his hotel room in Orlando, Florida, on 9 January, with a medical report concluding that he died of accidental trauma to the head.
“When I think about the fact that I haven’t talked to or seen my husband in a year, that’s very surreal and very, very strange,” she told NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff.
She also explained how her feelings of grief have changed over time.
“The missing him, and the being sad about it doesn’t go away,” the television host said. “The grief now has really morphed into this tremendous gratitude for the time we had together.”
As Rizzo looked back on this year and called the Full House star’s death the “worst thing [she’d] ever gone through”, she also said that Saget’s positivity has helped change her perspective.
“I’m really trying to take from it what you can do to turn this into a positive experience because Bob did that,” she explained. “He had so much loss in his life, and he turned everything into a positive, reflective experience. If he did that, I want to use this experience in the same way.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Rizzo, who was married to Saget for four years, detailed how close she’s become to his daughters, Aubrey, 35, Lara, 33, and Jennifer, 30, who he shared with his ex-wife, Sherri Kramer.
“The three of them are just everything to me because they were everything to him,” she said. “Keeping them close, really, is everything.”
She then shared how her social media posts about the actor have resonated with her followers.
“This is having some sort of impact on people who have gone through something similar, and now it’s just given me this whole new sense of purpose and life to be able to share this,” Rizzo said.
In February, authorities investigating Saget’s death said there were no signs of drug use or alcohol in his passing. The Medical Examiner’s office also suggested that the comedian had “accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep”.
Over the last year, Rizzo has spoken often about her late husband on her Instagram. In July, six months after Saget died, she confessed that she was still “learning how to brave the world” without him.
“6 months without my best friend, my travel buddy, my loving husband,” she wrote in the caption of her post. “6 months without your silliness, laughter, music, cuteness, caretaking, sharp wit, thoughtfulness, cuddling, and warmth. But it’s also been 6 months of looking for silver linings, learning how to brave the world without you. 6 months of care and compassion from so many who love you. Even though you’d want to make sure that we all still miss you…and dear God do we ever. We miss you so much, every day. Love you honey, the world still isn’t the same without you.”
